[MassHistPres] NEW DATE! VAF-NE Winter Meeting 19 April 2008

[Laura B. Driemeyer]

NEW DATE!
***If you registered for the postponed 1 March event, see registration instructions below.***

The Early Historians of New England's Architectural Heritage

New England Chapter of the Vernacular Architecture Forum

Winter Meeting

19 April 2008

Old Sturbridge Village

8:45 - 9:15
Registration & Coffee

9:15 - 9:30
Welcome & Introduction - Bill Flynt, VAF-NE President

9:30-10:20
Tom Denenberg (Portland Museum of Art), ""Preservation and Profit: Wallace Nutting and the Chain of Colonial Pictures Houses"

Wallace Nutting (1861-1941) played a key role in the early preservation movement in New England as the owner of his eponymous "Chain of Colonial 
Picture Houses."  A Congregational minister turned author, photographer, and successful entrepreneur, Nutting served as the principal authority on early 
American design in the opening decades of the twentieth century and played an important role in the development of a colonial revival aesthetic and 
ideology in the United States.  He collected, reproduced, and marketed colonial artifacts, and the goods and experiences he offered his middle-class customers-often sold at individual structures within the "chain" promoted his idealized notions of a time and place that he called "Old America."

10:20-11:00
Arnold Robinson (Newport Collaborative Architects), "Norman Isham: Rhode Island's Early Preservation Architect"

The work of Norman Isham in documenting and saving many of southern New England's important colonial buildings is well-known in modern preservation 
and architectural circles. As a trained architect, Isham brought an unusually methodical approach to his projects; however, there has not been a great deal documented about the man himself or about his philosophies and techniques as they evolved over the late-19th and early 20th centuries.

11:00 - 11:50
Tim Orwig (Boston University)"The Architect as Historian: Restoration Architecture of Joseph Everett Chandler"

Criticized for his early restorations, including the Paul Revere House and House of the Seven Gables, new research reveals that Joseph Everett Chandler 
was not only a working architect who photographed and documented historic buildings, but was also prolific Colonial Revival architect, museum planner, 
and architectural historian.

11:50 - 12:20
VAF-NE Annual Meeting

12:00 - 1:15
Lunch

1:15 - 2:00
Kathleen Curran (Trinity College), "Displaying American Decorative Arts: George Francis Dow's Period Rooms In International Context"

George Francis Dow's American interiors, which opened in 1907 in Salem's Essex Institute, are often considered among the earliest period rooms in the 
United States. This talk places Dow's achievement in the context of displays of national art in European museums with which he was familiar.  Long viewed 
as an "antiquarian," Dow was, in fact, among a small coterie of Americans who were aware of advanced methods of museum display in Europe.  His period 
rooms were an attempt to bring modern exhibition techniques to the American museum.

2:00 - 2:50
Sara Butler (Roger Williams University), "Antiquarians and Economics:  The Invention of Cushing's Island"

Cushing's Island's picturesque landscape, dotted with Romantic Shingle Style cottages, is an artfully crafted nineteenth-century fiction.   This little-known project, located in the harbor at Portland, Maine, is the fruit of a surprisingly luminous collaboration between the most famous landscape architect of the day, Frederick Law Olmsted, and noted local luminaries, including Portland architect, John Calvin Stevens, antiquarian William M. Sergeant, and developer Francis Cushing.   Invented pasts collided with market forces in the process of inventing Cushing's Island.

2:50 - 3:45
Panel Discussion with Speakers, Moderator: Pieter Roos, (Newport Restoration Foundation)

Join the speakers in a panel discussion, moderated by Newport Restoration Foundation Executive Director Pieter Roos, to explore more about New 
England's early historians, architects and antiquarians.  What are the implications of their research and practice for our understanding of early New England's architectural legacy?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
WHAT IS THE VAF?  The Vernacular Architecture Forum was founded in 1980 to encourage the study and preservation of all aspects of vernacular 
architecture and landscapes, through interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary methods.  The VAF publishes a quarterly newsletter and a series, Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, a journal Buildings & Landscapes, and awards the Abbott Lowell Cummings Award, for the best book in North American vernacular architecture; the Paul Buchanan Award, for excellence in fieldwork and interpretation, and the Henry Glassie Award, for special achievements in and contributions to the field of vernacular architecture. Its annual meetings, which emphasize intensive tours, are among its most distinctive traditions.  The VAF has recently begun to develop regional and topical chapters, and for over ten years New England's chapter has sponsored a number of field trips, workshops on building analysis, and this conference.  Membership in the New England Chapter is a free benefit of VAF membership for those in the six New England states and members receive 
regular notification of Chapter activities.  To join, send your name, address, and dues to Gabrielle Lanier, P.O. Box 1511, Harrisonburg, VA 22801-1511.  $45 active member, $25 student.  For more information about the VAF, visit our web site at http://www.vernaculararchitectureforum.org.

Directions to Old Sturbridge Village:  Old Sturbridge Village is located in the town of Sturbridge, MA, near the intersection of Route 90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike) and Route 84.  Make your way to Route 90/Mass Pike and take Sturbridge exit 9, which will be marked for Old Sturbridge Village with the brown signs used to indicate historic sites and parks.  After paying your toll, take the first right onto Route 20 west and follow the signs.  You will need to take the jug-handle on the right to make the left turn into the Village.  Park in the Village lot.  Then follow the path from the parking lot past the Tavern and the Bookstore on the left and the Visitors Center on the right.  The Conference Center is just past the Visitors Center on the right.

Weather: Since the Village is located on major roadways, we hope not to have to cancel, whatever the weather.  But if you are in doubt, you can call 
508-347-3362 and an answering machine message will let you know if we have decided the predictions are too dire.

Lunch: You may order sandwiches, drinks, etc. for an informal lunch at the Conference Center, available for $12. A la carte options may also be 
available at the Bullard Tavern in the historic area of the Village.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
***If you registered for the postponed 1 March meeting and plan to attend the rescheduled event, you need only re-register by email 
(ldriemeyer at verizon.net) as we still have your registration form and payment.***

Please register in advance. We need an estimate of participants.

Send registration material to: VAF-New England, Preservation Studies Program, Boston University, 226 Bay State Road, Boston MA  02215

Name:___________________________________ 


Affiliation:_____________________________

Mailing 
Address:____________________________________________________________________

Phone:__________________ e-mail:___________________

VAF member $10 _____. Non-member $18 _____. Student $8 ______. Lunch $12 ______

VAF-New England operates primarily through donated funds and services.  Your additional contribution will help us to continue our program
of field trips and winter meetings.  

Students should include a photocopy of their student ID.


Please make check payable to VAF-NE.

TOTAL ENCLOSED: ________